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Monday, June 24, 2013

Mystery Monday: Searching for Mary Ann, part 5

Mystery Monday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers
encouraging bloggers to share mystery ancestors or mystery records – anything
which is currently unsolved. With any
luck fellow genealogy bloggers will lend their eyes to what has been found so
far and possibly help solve the mystery.

Records for John Ermentraudt, son of Johan Friederich, have
not been found, likely destroyed during the Civil War when Union soldiers
overtook the wagon carrying Rockingham County’s deeds, wills, and records of marriage,
birth, and death to safety.

My next effort to find a mother and siblings for my 3G
grandmother Mary Ann Armentrout Jollett is to look at Friederich’s other
children. Perhaps Mary Ann’s uncle or
cousins bought and sold land or left wills that might offer a clue to solve
this mystery. Maybe Mary Ann and
Fielding Jollett sponsored a niece or nephew at baptism. But first I need to identify the possible
candidates.

1. Anna Magdalena was born in 1747 in Berks County,
Pennsylvania, but since there are no further records for her, it is believed
she might have died as a child.

2. George was born in 1750 in Berks County, Pennsylvania. He was 54 when he married Elizabeth Michael
in Rockingham County, Virginia. Given
George’s advanced age at marriage, it is possible he had been married before
making it also possible that there are more children unaccounted for. Alas, no record. He and Elizabeth had three children: Barbara
(1806), Michael (1807), and Magdalena (1809) who would have been roughly Mary
Ann’s age. Surely they would have known
each other and played together as children.
Unless I can find marriage records, the two girls will be difficult to
trace. Michael married and moved his
family to Ohio and then to Iowa. My one
hope is that he purchased and then sold land in Rockingham County before he
moved.

Next
step: Look for deeds and will for George
first and then Michael.

3. Christopher was born 1761 in Augusta (now Rockingham
County), Virginia. He married Mary
Catherine Pence in 1792. The two lived
in Rockingham County at least until he died in 1812. They had 5 children: Ann Mary (1793-1825),
Barbara (1794 - ), Mary C (1796 - ), Christopher (1798 - ), and Margaret (1800
- ). This line will likely lead to a
dead end as to date nothing is known about the three middle children. Ann Mary married Alexander Trout but died
early. Thirteen days later he married
her sister Margaret.

Next
step: Check Christopher’s will

4. Charles was born May 8, 1763 in what is now Rockingham
County, Virginia and died two days before his birthday in 1836 in Ohio. He married Christina Gray of Ohio, but they
had no children. It is not likely he
left any bread crumbs in Virginia because as soon as he came of age, he was
drafted into the Militia and served throughout the Revolutionary War. He moved to Ohio right afterwards.

Next
step: Skip him

5. Augustine was born in Rockingham County January 22, 1765
and died before 1850, still in Rockingham.
This is good news. He and wife
Margaret Schneider had seven children, all of whom remained in Rockingham: Magdalena (1791 - ), John George (1793 - ),
Emanuel (1801 – 1890), Charles (1805 – 1863), Frederick (1808 – 1882), Amanda
(1815 – 1890), and Anna Rebecca (1816 – 1880).

Next
step: Concentrate first on Augustine,
his land dealings and will.

6. Frederick was born about 1767 in Rockingham County and
died in 1837 in Allegheny County. I am
not too hopeful that Frederick will lead me to the answer to my question: Who was Mary Ann’s mother? He married Elizabeth Wolfe in Botetourt
County. For a time they owned land in
Monroe County (now West Virginia) and may have lived there as well, but for
most of his adult life he was in Allegheny.
And that’s where all nine children were too: Jacob (1800 – 1879), Mary (1802 - ), George
(1804 - ), Catherine (1806 - ), John (1808 - ), Abraham (1810 - ), Joseph (1814
- ), Elizabeth (1820 - ), Sarah (1824 - ).

Next
step: Eh, go back to Augustine.

7. Catherine Barbara was born in 1769 in Rockingham County. She married Fredrick Geiger/Kyger. Kyger is still a BIG name in Rockingham
County, so it’s a safe bet they stayed put even if the children moved
around. They had 9 known children: Anna Elizabeth (1794 – 1841), Barbara (1797 –
1875), George (1799 – 1837), Catherine (1800 – 1883), Anna Maria (1802 - ),
Rebecca (1805 - ), Christina (1806 - ), Lucy (1810 – 1860), and Charles (1811 -
).

Next
step: Look for land dealings of Fredrick
Geiger/Kyger.

CONCLUSIONS: The cold,
hard facts about the siblings of John Ermentraudt offer no clues to Mary Ann’s
mother, on the surface at least. At this
point I need to stop this series until I can get to the Library of Virginia to
learn whether any wills and deeds are available. My gut feeling is to start with Augustine.

You have been doing a great job with your research! And a lot of it frustrating, I'm sure. I have ancestors who were in Rockingham County, VA. You don't happen to have any Bryan or Westfall/Westall in your family do you? My 3rd great grandparents, John Franklin Bryan and Hester Jane Westfall were married there in 1815. The Bible I'm working on belonged to their son.

Are you a mind-reader? When I saw the name Bryan on your blog, I was going to email you about MY Bryans. I have a Lurainna Jollett who was married to a Robert Bryan. Sometimes the name is Bryan, sometimes Briant, and probably other spellings. In the 1850 Rockingham County census, she is 39 and he is 32; they have 4 kids: Jeremiah 10, Mary 7, Henry 4, and Robert 1 month. In 1860, Robert is 44 and Lurainna is 45; they have 6 kids: Jeremiah 18, Mary 16, Henry 13, Robert 10, John 5, George 1. After that I can't find them -- but I haven't worked hard at it either. I just got frustrated and quit because of the various spelling options. Come on and make my day -- tell me this family is in your family Bible!

Why, yes! I'm quite the mind reader... ha! More like I'm always looking for somebody who already knows something I want to know.Unfortunately, my Bible begins with a child of John Franklin Bryan and Hester Jane Westfall and they did not provide any information about their parents or aunts, uncles, etc. The names you mention don't sound familiar. So many Bryans, Briants, Bryants, Briens. So many Johns, Williams, Georges. I think most of my Bryans left Rockingham County, VA and headed to Todd County, Kentucky. I'll take a look back at other stuff I have and see if anything pops up. The other Bryans in this family married into Fox, Denny, Bradshaw, Campbell, Boots, Stokes..... families I think

Going by the dates, I'm guessing my Robert and Lurainna were about the same age as your John and Hester Jane. Brothers? I'm thinking there is a marriage record for Robert and Lurainna in Greene County, Virginia, which is just across the mountain from Rockingham.

In Family Search, I finally found Robert and Lurainna in 1870 and 1880, still in Rockingham County. In 1870 they are listed as O'Brian but were back to Bryan in 1880. It looks like at least 2 of their 8 kids went to Missouri.

I have a genealogy published by Jerry Bryan titled "Our Links to the Past - the Descendants of William Bryan" and I swear some blog recently led me to a site with lots of online scans of books, etc and it was there. But - if I really did see this book there, I apparently did not save the link in my Evernote and have no idea where I saw it (or maybe it was something else and I've lost my mind!). Today I can't find a free download. Anyway, I've looked through my copy for your Robert and for any Jollett's and don't think they are in it. There is apparently not much known about my John Franklin Bryan's family, but he was born in Culpepper Co. and was later in Rockingham, where he married. Maybe I can scan some pages that might be relevant (or not) to you and email them to you.

I'm SURE then that your Bryans and mine are connected if we go back at least a generation. My oldest KNOWN Jolletts were in Culpeper and then moved on to Orange (which split and formed Greene which is where my Jolletts and the family of this Robert Bryan were). Rockingham is just on the other side of the mountain from Greene.

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About Me

My name is Wendy. About twenty years ago, I helped my mother research the Jolletts. Since retiring from teaching, I have expanded my research which I share here. When I’m not looking for my own family, I index for FamilySearch and the Greene County Historical Society.
Welcome to Jollett Etc. Please leave a comment to let me know you were here. If you have more information or believe we are related, EMAIL ME at wendymath at cox dot net